paul walker’s car crash

Paul Walker's Car Crash

Paul Walker’s father, Paul Walker III, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche, almost two years to the day of the Fast & Furious actor’s fatal car crash.On Nov. 30, 2013, the 40-year-old star was riding in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT driven by friend Roger Rodas, 38, north of Los Angeles when the vehicle spun out of control, slammed into a tree and caught fire, killing them both.Paul Walker III filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche at a Los Angeles court just before the Thanksgiving holiday. The company has not responded to his filing.The actor’s dad, who is the executor of his son’s estate, says in his filing, obtained by E! News, that the car the actor rode in “lacked safety features that are found on well-designed racing cars or even Porsche’s least-expensive road cars—features that could have prevented the accident, or, at a minimum, allowed Paul Walker to survive the crash.”

Paul Walker's Car Crash

Porsche Accused of Hiding 'Damaging Evidence' on Car Used by Paul Walker in Fatal CrashBy Trace William CowenFeb 16, 2017ShareTweetPorsche has been accused of engineering a “cover-up” after a lawsuit was filed by Paul Walker's daughter, according to court documents obtained by the New York Daily News. Paperwork filed earlier this week shows that Meadow Walker alleged Porsche Cars of North America had “improperly redacted” information from emails and other documents. Those documents, the Daily News said, were at the center of Meadow's wrongful death claim.After switching computers, Meadow's attorney learned that Porsche had allegedly been attempting to conceal a discussion regarding the number of totaled Carrera GT vehicles (200 out of 1,280) during the model's first two years of production. Specifically, one alleged email from an unnamed Porsche manager stated that crashes were “great news” for owners as the GT would now become “more rare.”Meadow's attorney, Jeffrey L. Milam, told the Wrap in a statement that the newly discovered documents show that Porsche was aware of the dangers of the GT. “We have learned that Porsche has hidden damaging evidence it knew its Carrera GT—the car that killed Paul Walker—was dangerous and unsafe,” Milam said. “Porsche concealed this information from the public to protect its image and brand.” The filing says this alleged “misconduct” should warrant a default judgment and $52,732 in sanctions.In April 2016, a California court ruled in a separate suit that Porsche was “not to blame” for the 2013 crash that took the life of Walker and Roger Rodas. “Plaintiff has provided no competent evidence that Rodas's death occurred as a result of any wrongdoing on the part of defendant,” U.S. district judge Philip S. Gutierrez wrote in a judgment at the time, the Guardian reported.

Paul Walker's Car Crash

More importantly, what I had done was really fucking dangerous. Had the track layout been different; had it been a cold morning in Daytona, or Wisconsin, rather than Nevada, I may have hit a wall at 100 mph rather than some gravel at 20.Fast forward a year. In November of 2013, Paul Walker and Roger Rodas were hanging out at an open house and car show in front of the business they owned together, Always Evolving. I had the pleasure of both their company on several occasions; though we weren’t close, both Roger and Paul were always a pleasure to be around, especially at the track, where they spent a lot of time. Both were excellent drivers and upstanding citizens. Neither of them would live to see the end of the day.Roger, an avid car collector with more than 50 cars to his name—including what I believe is the largest collection of Saleen cars in the world—had just bought himself a Porsche Carrera GT out of a long-term collection.The red-over-black Carrera GT was the right color combo and had a famous owner in its history: Graham Rahal. It also had only 3,500 miles on the odometer, making for a highly desirable example. He had just taken delivery of the car that week. Paul, as big of a gearhead as he was, had never been in a Carrera GT before. It was a Sunday, so the large office park was all-but-deserted save for AE’s small section of parking lot.“Just once around the block.”Once around the block was all it took to kill them both. The 3,500 mile Carrera GT was shod with its original tires. They, like the car attached to them, were 9 years old.Roger lost control of the Carrera GT at an estimated 90 mph, and hit a tree.The mainstream media, and indeed many automotive-focused web sites, simply couldn’t wait to report on the irony of the situation, that someone known for playing a character who drives crazy is killed in a supercar doing double the speed limit in an office park.I was distraught the first couple of days, but honestly, all I could think about was how the crash happened, and I just kept going back to that day at Spring Mountain. This was a super low-mileage car. Roger was a really good driver. There were no other cars around or last-minute obstacles to avoid. It had to have been on original tires.No one talked about the tires. Everyone wanted to hang Paul and Roger out to dry as their speeding scapegoats. The tires were a footnote to an exaggerated story, and it became a missed opportunity to teach a very real lesson. The LA Times reported one article on it nearly 5 months after the crash, and that was it. The cause of the crash was still ruled “unsafe speed for the conditions.” And not “tires, which may as well have been made of paper mache.”

Paul Walker's Car Crash

Porsche has been accused of engineering a “cover-up” after a lawsuit was filed by Paul Walker's daughter, according to court documents obtained by the New York Daily News. Paperwork filed earlier this week shows that Meadow Walker alleged Porsche Cars of North America had “improperly redacted” information from emails and other documents. Those documents, the Daily News said, were at the center of Meadow's wrongful death claim.After switching computers, Meadow's attorney learned that Porsche had allegedly been attempting to conceal a discussion regarding the number of totaled Carrera GT vehicles (200 out of 1,280) during the model's first two years of production. Specifically, one alleged email from an unnamed Porsche manager stated that crashes were “great news” for owners as the GT would now become “more rare.”Meadow's attorney, Jeffrey L. Milam, told the Wrap in a statement that the newly discovered documents show that Porsche was aware of the dangers of the GT. “We have learned that Porsche has hidden damaging evidence it knew its Carrera GT—the car that killed Paul Walker—was dangerous and unsafe,” Milam said. “Porsche concealed this information from the public to protect its image and brand.” The filing says this alleged “misconduct” should warrant a default judgment and $52,732 in sanctions.In April 2016, a California court ruled in a separate suit that Porsche was “not to blame” for the 2013 crash that took the life of Walker and Roger Rodas. “Plaintiff has provided no competent evidence that Rodas's death occurred as a result of any wrongdoing on the part of defendant,” U.S. district judge Philip S. Gutierrez wrote in a judgment at the time, the Guardian reported.

Paul Walker's Car Crash

Your tires are the most important part of your car. They can make you faster, they can save your life, or they can get you killed, even if you’re the star of a major car-centric action franchise, and even if you aren’t driving. (Spoiler alert: the driver dies too).Considering how important tires are, they aren’t given nearly enough credit in the media or in car-guy circles. Sure, every racer talks about tires, and a lot of canyon warriors will sit on top of the snake talking setup, but on the internet and in casual conversation with casual enthusiasts, tires are a dull topic. You certainly can’t brag about them on a forum the way you can with your upgraded turbo and fresh dyno chart. You have to go into the Grassroots Motorsports catalog, or to a very specific sub-genre to see a tire comparison test for your desired application, so most people just end up reading reviews on TireRack.Tires are a dull topic even when we’re actively shopping for tires. They have insanely complicated naming schemes like GoodRubber GoodGripper Pro XGV25, which makes them even harder to discuss than Infiniti’s current lineup. In all seriousness, I have a set of tires on my Mustang at the moment called “Continental ContiForce Contact.” That’s a real name under which a real set of tires is marketed. Most people don’t have the luxury of actually testing tires before they buy either, making decisions based on either anecdotal evidence, a roll of the dice, budget, or a combination of the three.Nevertheless, the four small patches of rubber connecting your two-ton manslaughter machine to your city’s lowest-priced asphalt are, if you ask me, the best way to improve your car, or, the quickest way to fuck it up, crash, and even die. Even if you should know better. And I’m going to give you one piece of advice—advice I learned the hard way, but not as hard as my friends Paul Walker—who would have celebrated his 43rd birthday this week—and Roger Rodas did.In November of 2012, I entered my modified C5 Corvette in the “Optima Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational,” a multi-discipline driving event held the day after SEMA ends in Las Vegas.I could not have been less prepared for this event if I had left the car’s targa roof at home in the garage—which, by the way, I did. Think it never rains in Vegas? Never snows? Go there in a car without a roof. I guarantee both will happen.Though the car was in mostly good nick, with around 25,000 miles on it. The engine makes 400 horsepower to the wheels with some mild bolt-on upgrades, and it has a Stoptech Big Brake kit, Pfadt coilover suspension, racing seats, harnesses, and more. All of it worked.